where he could be hit, and his enemy Hagen was apprised of the fact
(Nibelungenlied 899, 905, 980–2). Conganchnes (‘Hornskin’) mac Dedad had
a skin so hard that the weapons bounced off him. But his wife, who was in
league with his enemies, wheedled out of him the fact that he could be killed
by driving red-hot iron spits through the soles of his feet into his shins. He
was put to sleep with spells and the treatment was applied.^107 In Gaelic oral
versions of the story of Diarmaid and Gráinne the hero can only be killed
through the sole of his foot. After the hunting of a huge boar his enemy Fionn
induces him to measure the length of the creature by stepping it out over the
bristles, with fatal consequence.^108
CONCLUSIONIn treating of the king we were able to start from linguistic evidence and the
certainty that kingship was an Indo-European institution. On this basis it
seemed legitimate to interpret as reflecting common inheritance parallel
features in the kingships known to various mythical and historical traditions.
With heroes the situation is different, as we are not dealing with a specific
institution. There was no Indo-European word for ‘hero’, at any rate in
the sense in which we have been using the term. The hero is a creation of
narrative art. What we have been seeking to identify are the typical colours in
which he tends to be painted in the narrative traditions of Indo-European
peoples, in the diffident hope that here too there may be something of a
common ancestral heritage. We have tried to tread carefully, conscious of the
power of horizontal transmission especially in the realm of stories and story
patterns.
So far we have considered the hero as an individual and in relation
to other individuals. In the final chapter a wider canvas is unrolled: heroic
activity on the battlefield.
(^107) Aided Cheltchair meic Uthechair 8 f., ed. Kuno Meyer, The Death-Tales of Ulster Heroes
(Todd Lecture Series 1906), 26 f. Fer Diad too is ‘horn-skinned’ in Táin (L) 2641, cf. 2749.
(^108) J. G. Campbell (as n. 84), 54, 56, 58 f.
446 11. King and Hero